


Fake It Till You Make It

by annioe



Series: Bandtrees One Shots [7]
Category: Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson
Genre: Crush, F/M, Fake Dating, Fluff, It’s still not that good, crushing anyway, taken a while to write this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-28
Updated: 2018-08-28
Packaged: 2019-07-03 21:36:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15827412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annioe/pseuds/annioe
Summary: “What about him?” Alana nodded towards a shy blonde boy who was eating lunch by himself. No one seemed to care for him. He looked lonely, almost too lonely. Zoe had seen him before, he was a senior. Sometimes people would make fun of him. Zoe understood why, he seemed nice in that anxiety filled way.





	Fake It Till You Make It

**Author's Note:**

> WOW the band trees tag has been very dry recently. No need to fear, I’m back with this very badly written random fic that I haven’t edited yet but you deserve it anyway! I’ve been very busy and stressed about school (coincidentally I’m the most stressed about drama) but anyway moving on. ENJOY!!!

It wasn’t like Zoe to beg people to do things for her. The only time she did so was at her brother and that was in the most serious cases. But she justified Evan being her fake boyfriend as a serious case.

Let her explain.

Her mother always had a thing for pairing her daughter up with possible bachelors within her friend circle and she found a new target, William. Her and William were friends but he told Zoe that he was closeted and didn’t want to be hooked up with her and she wouldn’t want to do that to him. So when her mother asked for the two to come to dinner, William kicked Zoe in the foot to try and stop him from coming. Zoe lied and said she had plans to go on a date with her boyfriend and Cynthia was obviously shocked. She asked her to invite her boyfriend to dinner and that’s how Alana and Zoe ended up at school, looking at all possible fake boyfriends.

“What about Luke? He seems pretty nice,” Alana played with her pasta as they looked over to the Junior who looked somewhat high.

“My mum would never say anything good about him. We already have one stoner in the family, don’t need them to be introduced to another.”

“What about him?” Alana nodded towards a shy blonde boy who was eating lunch by himself. No one seemed to care for him. He looked lonely, almost too lonely. Zoe had seen him before, he was a senior. Sometimes people would make fun of him. Zoe understood why, he seemed nice in that anxiety filled way.

“What about him?” Zoe replied, not taking her eyes off of him.

Alana rolled her eyes, “what about him being your fake boyfriend? He seems up to it. I mean, he’s cute, probably not a stoner and I heard he’s a good student so he’s right up your alley.”

Zoe got up because she was never one to back down from a challenge. Plus she was interested in seeing where this would lead next. He didn’t look up. He acted small, hunched shoulders and picking at his food. 

“Hi,” she stood in front of him which caused him to look up sharply and almost lose all sense of reality. She could see his eyes widen like a deer caught in headlights.

“H-hey,” he answered, his voice being timid and quiet.

Zoe sat opposite him. He completely stopped everything. He fidgeted with his hands, avoided eye contact and talked to himself. Small whispers of what he was saying were heard.

“Don’t mess this up… don’t be so scared…”

Zoe asked, “what’s your name?”

He replied with his lip slightly opened, “E-Evan. Evan H-Hansen.”

She smiled to hopefully make him more comfortable, “Evan, that’s a nice name.”

He blushed, light pink grazing his cheeks, “thank you.”

“I’m Zoe,” she waved and hopefully gave him a more calming smile.

“Oh,” he said non-surprisingly, “I, eh, thought your name was Chloe? Eh, that’s so casual to mix up names.” 

“No, my name’s Zoe.”

“I know, you have a nice name t-too.” He stuttered out, his stutter being adorable.

“You know?” She murmured, playing with her shirt sleeve.

“Well you’re in jazz band! You’re the l-lead singer and g-guitarist.”

Zoe kept the small talk going, actually enjoying Evan company. He was sweet. She understood why people always picked in him, he was too good for the world. So what she was about to say next would have sounded torturous. Not because it was a terrible idea but she didn’t want to pull him into the mess or use him in any way.

“Can I tell you why I came over here,” she said almost too matter of factly which extinguished the glint in his eyes, his soft baby blue eyes. She hated it, “that sounds so bad, I’m sorry.”

“I’m us-used to being used,” he replied, sounding sadder than ever before. It smashed her heart into tiny pieces.

“I need you to play my pretend boyfriend,” she said, instantly feeling the regret of saying those words. 

“What, why?” He asked, intrigued and slightly questionable.

She bit her bottom lip before giving him a brief explanation and pleaded, “I’ll never be able to repay you but I can give you money? Fifty bucks? Is that enough?”

“I don’t n-need money…” he cringed, losing eye contact with her. “I don’t want m-money.” 

“Do you already have a girlfriend? Oh my god, I didn’t even ask, I don’t want to be that person…”

“No! No, I d-don’t have a girlfriend,” he completely reassured her. He looked at her eyes. Hazel, big, warm, inviting. He held his breath and thought to himself, “I’ll do it! W-Where do we start?”

“Want to meet this Friday? At my house? My mum won’t be home so we can talk about it then.”

“Okay, Jose,” he replied, pointing finger guns at her. He saw her look at him, about to burst into laughter when he turned bright red and played within his fingers.

She giggled, “okay, Jose.” Zoe gave him a sweet smile, handing her phone to him to type his number. 

-

Evan approached Zoe’s house with a packet of cookies in hand. She’d appreciate the gift of cookies wouldn’t she? Oh no, she was going to hate his cookies. They were no big deal, just his life and soul was poured into those cookies. He knocked on the door. His hands were getting sweaty. 

Thankfully she opened the door. Oversized shirt, skinny jeans and bare feet. She had glasses on. He never knew she wore glasses.

“Hey,” she peered through the door opening and smiled. Her eyes travelled down to the cookies and she gasped. “Who are those for?”

“They’re for you!” He handed the packet and blushed red when she didn’t seem to take it.

She reached out and grabbed them, inspecting them before smiling. “Thank you, they look delicious.”

He stayed silent. Zoe saw him turn a bit red, “sorry, I really love them! It’s just my mum’s in a phase where she only eats organic and gluten free food. I’ll just eat the cookies with you…” she explained, allowing Evan into her house. 

Her house. It was big, really big. He looked around seeing endless hallways and he couldn’t function how he was actually in Zoe Murphy’s house. Endless lessons of staring at her in class and being too afraid to speak to her really paid off. Zoe saw him flustered by their surroundings and she shrugged, “come on, I’ll show you my room.”

She guided him to her room which seemed to be an endless maze and she eventually reached the end of the opposite hall. She opened it, revealing what seemed to be somewhat a dream. Stars along the ceiling, she can count instead of sheep, a closet the size of another bedroom just decorated with different aesthetics and a bed that could fit her and Evan, together. Zoe moved her guitar to allow Evan to sit on her desk chair as she sat on her bed, one leg pulled up against her while the other dangled over the edge. She opened the container of cookies and offered Evan one. Evan took it and nervously started to eat it.

“So, where do you want to start?”

“Where do you want to start?”

Zoe giggled, music to Evan’s ears, and she bit her lip to think, “tell me a bit about yourself Evan.”

Evan paused to think of any redeemable traits about himself, “well I’m 17, my birthday’s on March 26th and I love t-trees.”

“You love trees?” She laughed, grabbing another cookie.

“I mean…” he blushed out of embarrassment. He stuttered, “I don’t really love trees! Like cool environment!”

“It’s cute,” she giggled, touching his shoulder playfully. “What about your family? Have any siblings?”

“No, I’m an only child. My mum is a nurse and is studying to be a lawyer while my dad,” he paused, stopping on the thought. He never told anyone before. “My dad… left when I was 7, he has a new family and everything.”

Zoe swallowed her cookie and guided her hand to squeeze his. She graciously smiled. “We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to…” she whispered soothingly.

He nodded and he said, “no, it’s okay. Um, what about you? I know you have a brother, Connor, your mum and dad.”

“My parents don’t even seem to like each other, they might as well get divorced.”

“I’m sorry, I know how that feels. Like everything’s your fault.”

“I rather have my parents divorced than have them together not loving each other,” Zoe looked down at her feet. 

“You’re in jazz band, you scribble stars on your jeans when you’re bored and once you dyed indigo highlights in your hair which I thought was really really pretty… I mean, I uh-“ he tried making an excuse to why he knew all this. She lifted an eyebrow, raised her head and he swore he could see a slight pink blush cover her cheeks. 

“Wow Hansen, you really do your homework.”

“Yeah,” he nodded, fiddling with this sleeve, “also you’re 16 and um- you went to the school dance last year and whenever you perform a solo, you unconsciously smile like you have a secret and you’re letting the audience in, on that secret. OH! Also you dance and act and like you’re really good at school!” He rambled leaving Zoe in curious shock.

“How do you know all of this about me?” She asked, biting back into another cookie.

Evan snapped out of whatever phase he was in and looked at her in pure shock. “I- uh,” he turned red and smiled at her. “I see you around a lot and I-I’ve never had the guts to talk to you! You seem, cool,” he lightly hit her shoulder and she blushed a shade of pink.

“Thanks Evan, you seem cool too,” she pulled her other leg up, “cookie?” She offered again.

“No thanks. So what else do couple do?”

“Well, what is your favourite food?”

“Sushi for sure! California rolls are the best.”

She nodded her head and giggled at Evan smiling so wide at her. It sent butterflies to her stomach, unfamiliar beats to her heart.

“Would we…” Evan paused, looking at her with desperate eyes, “need to kiss or something? I’ve never done that before.”

“I haven’t either,” Zoe also admitted, shrugging her shoulders. She looked up nervously at Evan who was just as red as she was.

“Do you want to?” Evan trailed, barely getting the rest of the conversation out before Zoe went in and lightly kissed his lips. They were soft, plump, gentle.

Evan cupped her cheek with one of his hands to pull her closer and ultimately, Zoe and Evan let go. Zoe opened her eyes and wiped her lips, “was that… was that good?”

Evan still dazed nodded his head without thinking, “that was… great. Totally believable,” his entire face went vibrant red, “I really… thanks for being my first kiss I guess?”

Zoe herself, blushed a bright red. “That was nice,” she whispered and coughed.

“What else do couples do?” Evan asked, hiding his obvious enjoyment of this.

Zoe sat up straight, trying to rid of the remaining pink left on her cheeks, “uh, well I don’t really know. I’ve never been in a relationship before.”

Evan stuck his hands up in fake surprise, “eyy! Me too!”

Zoe laughed and fell on her back, not being able to stop giggling at Evan’s adorableness. He was really funny. Her lips still tingled from his kiss and she smiled, unknowingly to Evan.

He was the best fake boyfriend she could ask for.

-

A week past and it was officially time for the dinner. She had told Evan to dress smart casual as she tried to unintentionally dress up so she could possibly impress Evan. She didn’t know why. She curled her hair into waves (which she would rarely do) and put on the nicest thing in her closet, an off-white dress she wore to someone’s wedding. She jumped when she heard the doorbell ring. She had done natural make up to hopefully impress him. She didn’t exactly know why she was doing it, she just thought he’d appreciate the effect she was putting into this fake boyfriend thing. She ran down the stairs yelling at her entire family that she would get the door. As she swung the door open, she was shaken to the core. Evan Hansen had brought her flowers; lilies. He was dressed in a white dress shirt with navy blue dress pants and suspenders. He nervously was wiping his hand on his pants, murmuring things to help reassure his anxiety were just thoughts. He lifted his eyes to see Zoe, smiling so brightly and wide, on the verge of tears.

“Hi,” he whispered, taken aback by her beauty. She looked incredible.

“Hey,” she responded, going in to kiss his cheek. His skin was warm. He anxiously handed her the flowers, saying some sort of excuse of if it was too far but she smelt them and saw Evan’s dreamy eyes and she kissed him. The best thing about this whole arrangement was she was able to kiss him and be completely justifiable. Maybe she was using this too much to her own advantage but Evan just closed his eyes and pulled her in by the waist, him blushing the entire time.

“Thank you for these flowers,” she gushed as she held his hand and led him into their house. She closed the door and led him into the dining room where Evan felt out of place. Connor Murphy, Zoe’s evil brother, was sitting at the table, playing on his phone and grunting when he lifted his eyes a bit to see that Evan was awkwardly standing there. Then there was Zoe’s father, who looked half dead and unwilling to be there. Finally, coming through the door with a plate of something uncomfortably green and brown, was Zoe’s mother. As she spotted Evan linking hands with her daughter, Cynthia came up to him with a big smile and a hug. 

“HELLO!” She squeezed him and rocked side to side. Zoe laughed.

“He-llo,” he coughed out as she left go of him.

“Zoe, introduce your boyfriend to me! He is very dashing.”

Zoe flushed red at her mum calling him ‘dashing’ but she returned to his side. “Mum, this is Evan. Evan, this is my mum.”

“Call me Cynthia,” she added as Zoe returned to linking hands with Evan who was holding even tighter to her grip.

The pair sat next to each other which Evan was thankful for because Connor looked like a devil and Cynthia was bombarding him with questions. About his family, friends, school, the three things he hated talking about the most. But Zoe was there, underneath the table and squeezing his hand, their unspoken language. He whispered things into her ear which made her laugh. To anyone else, they looked like an actual couple. 

“May you excuse me,” Evan randomly pardoned as he left the weird concoction Cynthia had made for dinner. Zoe wasn’t so polite and just stood up, leaving the rest of her family behind as she went to follow Evan. He was walking faster than her so as she tried to catch up, he was ahead of her. 

He ran into her bedroom, pacing back and forth. He started fighting with himself. ‘She doesn’t like you, it’s all fake. Everything that is happening is fake. None of this is real. She just kissed you because that’s what couples do right? They kiss and it meant nothing to her, but it meant something to me? I can’t keep doing this!’

“Ev?” Zoe knocked on her own bedroom door as she waited for Evan’s response. He was silent. She thought she had interrupted something important. But she needed to make sure he was okay. She opened the door slightly at the exact same time he decided to too. They were almost face to face, his baby blue eyes shifting to a vibrant green in a blink of an eye. She loved his eyes, they were like the gateway to heaven. His breathing was uneven, which caused her to open the door wider and hold his palms in her own. “Is everything okay?”

He tried to fake a smile but he wasn’t so successful, “no, I’ll be fine.”

“I don’t want you to be just fine. Tell me what’s wrong,” she squeezed his hands before he went in to kiss her. It was so fast that she almost missed it. His lips separated from her too quickly and he looked like a sad puppy. Begging eyes. 

“I was… lying when I said I knew all that stuff from trying to talk to you,” he paused, not holding eye contact with her. She cupped his cheek and tried to encourage him to continue. “Eh, it’s actually because I-I really… like you. Like I’ve had this crush on you for probably three years now? And when you finally came up to me, I couldn’t help myself and I’m sorry! I’m the worst fake boyfriend ever! Like number one rule of fake dating is to never fall for each other but I already did and you probably don’t even like me back so…”

Zoe got onto her toes and stopped him speaking by passionately kissing him. She threw all that fake dating stuff out the window and just focused on him, his face, his warmth and his eyes, which were shining when she let herself go from his touch. He raised his eyebrows and took a heavy breath before mouthing, “so…? You don’t hate me?”

“NO! Never,” she laughed before giving him a peck on the forehead, “I kinda like you too. When Alana pitched all those other fake boyfriends I came up with excuses to say no but you, I gravitated towards you, you were my first kiss,” he blushed and goofily smirked at himself.

He almost went in for a hug but stopped himself, just touching her shoulders and whispering “thank you,” as he grew even more red. “So… are we kinda, a real thing now?? I mean, we don’t have to be if you don’t want to…”

“Yes Evan. We’ve been dating for over a week!” She said jokingly, referring to the entire week of them trying to not act awkward and too over the top with their fake dating. 

“Oh right…” he remembered, giving her a loving kiss on her forehead.

**Author's Note:**

> You know wht to do. Kudos, comment, follow me on Tumblr if you want.


End file.
